


QMS 10 1

by Deacon_Heller



Series: Quantum Mirror Series [10]
Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26936329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deacon_Heller/pseuds/Deacon_Heller
Summary: While investigating a jungle world SG10 discovers a camp filled with the skulls of big game trophy kills, many of which contain the skeleton of a Goa'uld symbiote. After a search of the area they discover a downed alien vessel. They are attacked on the way back to the gate by an alien creature that takes telepathic control of Colt and forces him to fire on his team.
Series: Quantum Mirror Series [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965412





	QMS 10 1

Part 1

The vortex reached out and then splashed back into the gate. Three seconds later Ford emerged and walked down the steps onto the new jungle world. 

"Woooooo!" Colt bellowed as he crossed the event horizon just before the gate closed. The steamy heat and the smell of the jungle washed over Colt. "Uh aw! What's that smell?"

"The jungle is not always filled with pretty flowers," Natock said in a low tone as he waited for Colt to come down the steps. 

"What is it, like a hundred and twenty degrees here?" Madison asked as he passed Natock and stepped into the thick jungle brush. 

"MALP said ninety six degrees with eighty three percent humidity. Mine as well be Hawaii," Ford said with a smile. "Let's go for a walk."

The gate closed behind them, and the sounds of the jungle quickly returned to normal. 

"Natock, take point. Washington, take the rear," Ford said, as they walked away from the gate. 

SG Ten walked on in silence for half an hour before Colt's attention span reach its limits. "Ok, so ten bucks says ancient Mayan temples...probably full of alien monkeys."

"I'll take that action," Madison replied. 

"I got ten that says lizard people instead of monkeys," Ford said, over his shoulder. 

"God, I hope not. Those little gater people were a pain in the ass," Colt said. 

Natock raised his fist and froze, and everyone stopped. Colt and the rest of the team dropped into a crouch, waiting for instructions. Ford silently jogged up behind Natock, and crouched down beside him. Natock pointed up into the trees. Ford looked where he was pointing and saw why he stopped. 

Fifty feet above the ground, in the lower tree canopy, a ten foot by ten foot cage hung by a tangled parachute from the thick branches. The metal door of the cage had been torn open from the inside, and swung slowly as the trees swayed in the wind. Ford and Natock exchanged quizzical expressions. Ford looked ahead half a mile and saw a similar cage at the base of another tree. It's parachute was torn and partially covered the square metal cage.

Ford gave the signal to advance with rifles at the ready. They continued on another mile, and the invisible path that Natock had been tracking became wider and more obvious to Colt. It finally opened up to a massive clearing. Bright sunlight washed over the skull strewn field. 

Ford signaled Ten to fan out and look for danger. Colt examined the clearing for a few seconds as he skirted the tree line. He didn't need Natock to explain what it was to him. The skulls of at least twenty different alien species on spikes decorated the clearing. In the center of the clearing there was a large pit filled with scorched bones and ash. Three metal crates with a thin band of alien script engraved across the top sat beside the fire pit. It was a hunting camp.

They scanned the area around the camp, but found no signs of the Hunter. Ford waved everyone to the center of the clearing by the dead fire pit. As Colt approached the fire pit he stopped to examine one of the skulls. To his left was a long curved skull with a smooth top and thick ridges along the sides and bottom. Colt didn't see any orbital sockets and wondered if the creature even had eyes. 

To his right there was a T shaped skull that was three feet wide with a sagital crest that extended upwards almost three more feet. It's mouth was wide and very angular. Like the skull to his left this one had no orbital sockets either. Colt looked past them and counted twenty three more skulls placed on spikes around the camp. 

Colt passed an obelisk with chains bolted into its side. He couldn't tell if the structure was stone or steel. He'd never seen any material like it before. It was obvious to Colt, however, what it was for. The dried blood stains made that clear enough.

At the center of the clearing Colt dropped to one knee with his team. He kept his rifle pointed at the ground, he clenched the grips convulsively as he waited for orders. Shadows from two more obelisks reached across the clearing. 

Natock stood by one of the mounted skulls near the fire pit, and waved Ford over to him. "Sergeant."

Everyone followed Ford to look at what Natock had found. When they all stood in front of him, Natock stepped aside to reveal a human skull on a spike with the skeleton of a Goa'uld symbiote hanging from its empty left eye. At the base of the spike was a golden skull cap, and a scorched piece of golden Goa'uld chest armor with a section melted away.

"Hmm!" Ford mumbled as he took the symbiote from the skull and looked at it. He tossed the Goa'uld skeleton aside as he turned and looked around at the ground in front of all the skulls. Weapons, fetishes, claws, and bones accompanied each kill. Three skulls to the left, Ford saw the skull of an Unas with another symbiote skeleton hanging from its eye socket.

Beside the Unas that carried a symbiote stood another Unas skull without one. Ford looked from trophy to trophy. One with, and without a symbiote. "Whatever hunts here likes to play with Goa'uld."

Natock inspected the fire pit, and picked up a bone from the center. He rubbed his fingers on it, and then tossed it back in the pit. "This fire is at least a month old."

"Ok, that I get," Colt said, pointing at the Goa'uld skeleton, "but why is that here?" Colt said, pointing to the human made mini-gun sitting behind a bush. He squatted down and examined it. 

"What is it?" Ford asked.

"A GShG- 7.62, Slostin machine gun," Colt answered. "It's been here a few years, at least."

"A G-Shock what now?" Madison asked.

"It's a Russian mini-gun," Colt answered. "Spetsnaz uses them sometimes." 

"What's it doing here? This wasn't on the list of worlds the Russians visited," Ford said. 

"Assuming they gave us a complete list," Washington added. 

Colt was still squatting beside the mini-gun when he looked up, and something in the distance caught his eye. He lifted his rifle and looked through his scope. "Well hello."

"What do you see?" Natock asked.

"A wrecked ship, about two kilometers that way," Ford pointed a knife hand in the direction he was looking. "Move out. Colt, you're on point." 

The rest of the team followed Colt. Ford waited until Natock walked past him, and he stopped the Jaffa. "You feel that?"

"That we are being watched?" Natock asked. "Yes, for several minutes now."

"You take the rear and make sure nothing tries making a trophy out of us," Ford growled before he headed after Colt. 

"Understood," Natock said as he looked around behind them.

The Hunter watched the intruders that arrived through the ring gate walk below him along the jungle floor. Like most other Hunters, he watched his prey in the infrared spectrum. A window appeared on the left side of the screen in his biomask, it showed a nude version of the male of the species. Text scrolled down in a column beside it. The Hunter took a quick glance at the information on them. It was a common species, found on countless worlds across the galaxy, but some were more dangerous than others.

It was difficult to tell which world these intruders were from. The Hunter wasn't familiar with their uniforms, but he was very familiar with the armored uniforms of the species that carried the parasite in their abdominal cavity, or at the base of their brains. They knew how to use the gate system very well. 

The Hunter switched the spectrum on his visor to x-ray. It was his habit when encountering this species to check for the parasite that made them stronger. He started with the intruder in front, and then worked his way to the one in the rear. The last intruder had one of the parasites in his abdoman. Another window opened up on the left side of his visor and it showed a human in Jaffa armor. A circle appeared over the stomach of the Jaffa and the armor disappeared to reveal the abdominal pouch and then the flesh became transparent to show the symbiote inside. 

The Hunter watched them walk away from his trophies. He waited until they were more than a mile away before he dropped down from his perch, and strided over to the Goa'uld skeleton on the ground. He picked it up and ran his thumb and forefinger over it as he looked at it. He carefully placed it back in the eye socket of the human skull and then glanced at the path the intruders took. 

SG Ten walked slowly, and quietly towards the crashed ship. When they arrived Colt walked around the ship examining it. It was roughly the size of a Tel'tak, but it had much more organic curves to it. The ship reminded Colt of scarab beetle. The forward windows looked like multifaceted eyes. He put his hand on a melted hull plate, examining the damage. "Looks like it stood up to at least seven plasma blasts before the engines took a direct hit."

Colt looked back along the deep impact crater that stretched out for over a mile behind it. He lifted his rifle and examined the low foothills in the distance through his scope. There was a section in the upper left corner of a thick peak that looked discolored. "Yeah. The ship came down from back there, bounced off the rocks, crashed, and stopped here."

"Take a look inside, see if there's anything important," Ford ordered, as he glanced at the jungle around the ship. "Natock, go with him."

Colt crept in carefully scanning the darkened interior, his rifle pulled tight to his shoulder. Natock followed him into the damaged hatch on the side of the ship. Once he searched the entire ship Colt unclipped his rifle and set it on the floor as he examined what he assumed was a cockpit.

"Three ports," Colt said, looking at the control pods at the front of the ship. 

"Three pilots," Natock agreed.

Colt climbed down into the center pod. He had to lay down on his stomach to sit in the pod correctly. Just in front of his face were seven small screens set in an octagonal arrangement. Colt was just slightly too tall for the pod, and his boots were too large for the foot pedals. He reached forward and put his left hand on one of the control sticks. Colt saw it was molded for a hand, but not a human hand. There was no spot for a thumb. 

"A four fingered hand," Colt mumbled to himself as he examined the stick. The middle two finger slots were two inches longer than the outer two. Colt snapped some quick pictures of the interior of the pod and the control stick with, and without his hand on it. 

Colt lifted himself up and looked down at the molded bed of the pod. There were more hand molded controls and tiny strips of gold metal set in them. More strips were molded into the seat where the pilots body laid. Colt concluded they were supposed to touch bare skin of the pilot. 

"Whatever flew this had no thumbs and seemed go around nude like the Asgard. I think their technology works on detecting impulses through their skin," Colt said, pulling himself out of the pod and picking up his rifle.

"Natock?" Ford asked as he poked his head into the ship.

"I know of no such species," He answered.

"You think you can get it running?" Ford asked Colt. 

"Nothing is responding. The power source is either depleted or destroyed. From the looks of the outside of the ship I'd say it's fifty-fifty. If we had a Naquadah generator I could try to power it up."

"Mark this for the Carters. I'm sure they'll want to come back and pull apart. Let's go," Ford waved them out of the ship. "We'll flag this planet as a possible alien civilization."

"You think this ship might be from a population somewhere else on the planet?" Madison asked. 

"Sure," Ford said, walking out of the ship. "He went camping in the jungle and his car broke down."

"Happens all the time," Colt added. 

"That seems unlikely," Natock mused. 

They were still within sight of the downed ship when they heard a metallic screech echo through the jungle. Ford looked at Natock, but the Jaffa just shook his head. He'd never heard it before. Ford issued hand signals to the team. He wanted to get back to the gate quickly now. 

Once again, Ford felt like he was being watched. He glanced at Natock, and the Jaffa answered the unasked question with a knowing nod. There were noises in the distance, sounds that stood out above the ambient jungle noise. Ford knew something was following them, maybe even circling around them just out of sight. They exchanged glances, everyone knew by the time they passed the trophy site. 

The Hunter watched as his primary prey followed the intruders, circling around them. Its skin temperature implied fear. Though it was very strong physically, it was afraid of the intruders. The Hunter wondered if his prey had encountered their species before.

They reached a large clearing and hid in the tree line while Colt walked into the center of clearing, dropped to one knee, and waited. Ford wanted to draw whatever was hunting them out into the open. If they couldn't talk to it, they would kill it. Colt waited as the time passed, and the shadows changed. Finally, Colt began to hear movement in the bush. He lifted his rifle and peered through the scope. Colt saw a dark outline moving in the brush, and then drop down into a crouch. 

"I got eyes on it. This thing is ugly. It's got a bulky head, like an Asgard, but he's got a lot more muscle. His skin is dark green with grey spots. The lower half of its face is all teeth, and he's got a 'Y' orifice on his forehead...like a Jaffa stomach pouch," Colt began. 

"Does it see us?" Ford asked Colt.

"Not yet," Colt replied. "Wait, he's looking right at m..." 

Colt stopped talking. He knelt there, motionless, crouched in the middle of the clearing, looking at the creature.

"Colt? Colt, is it hostile?" Ford asked. "Colt? Colt? Are you ok?"

Colt didn't respond, but continued to remain motionless for almost a minute. Finally he stood up slowly and turned towards Washington. Colt lifted his rifle and aimed at his teammate. 

"Colt!" Washington shouted just before he ducked a plasma blast from Colt's rifle.

Ford was stunned for a second, but when Colt fired at Washington the second time Ford ignored the creature they had been looking for. The Sergeant sprang from his position and sprinted towards Colt. Ford kept yelling, but Colt showed no sign that he heard anything. Colt continued advancing on Washington firing blast after blast.

Once Ford cleared the bush at the base of the tree line and bounded out into the open Colt turned on him and fired. Ford instantly dropped to the ground as yellow plasma streaked over his head. Washington sprinted from his position to another behind a large boulder with a tall tree growing over it, sprawling roots across it. Colt turned to fire at him again, but Washington was already safe behind the cover before the first plasma blast hit the stone. Colt turned again to fire on Ford, but a streak of blue light splashed over his chest and spread over the rest of his body, stunning him. Colt dropped to the ground unconscious. 

The Hunter watched from above as his prey took control of an intruder and turned him against the other intruders. It was no surprise that the prey turned them against each other, the Hunter expected that, but the weapon that the intruder used caught his attention. 

The intruder that was under control fired a plasma weapon at one of its team. The Hunter examined the plasma bursts, and then a window appeared on the left side of his visor. It examined a still shot of the yellow plasma burst. His gauntlet computer ran a quick analysis of it and displayed an Oxygen molecule. Another window appeared under it, comparing his own plasma caster to the rifle. The gas that his used was a Silicon Fluorine molecule. The intruders plasma burned twice as hot, but their bursts were only a third the size of his.

In the time that it took Ford to stun Colt, Natock circled around opened fire on the creature in the brush. It instantly darted through the brush, and sprinted further into the jungle. Natock didn't hesitate to follow it, stopping only to fire at the creature when he had a clear shot. 

Natock recognized mind control when he saw it. He knew the creature had some kind of hold on Colt, but he heard the sound of a Zat gun, and the shooting stopped. Natock hoped that Colt was stunned before he could land a shot on anyone, but the Jaffa couldn't give it much thought as he chased the thick muscled creature further and further from the gate. It sprinted quickly through the thick ground cover of the jungle floor, but Natock was able to keep up with it. His symbiote began pouring adrenaline into his system. The Jaffa took deep steady breaths as he ran.

Natock suspected the instant it was out of sight the creature would circle back and try to catch him off guard, and making eye contact. He wasn't sure if that was how it took hold of Colt or not, but he knew that it was less likely to take hold of him while it was running for its life. Natock caught the scent of an ocean nearby and wondered briefly if the creature was amphibious, and leading him towards a trap. 

The shriek that the creature let out a few seconds later was one of fear and surprise. Natock kept sprinting forward and barely stopped himself at the drop off. The jungle floor fell away and revealed the ocean hundreds of feet below. Natock watched the creature flail madly just before it dropped below the surface of the roiling waves. He lifted his rifle and watched through his scope, waiting for the creature to resurface. As the seconds ticked by, and he saw nothing, Natock began to suspect that the creature was in fact amphibious and leading him towards as trap. If that was the case it was likely suicide to follow it down into the water. The other possibility was that it was ground into shredded meat on rocks below the surface, which meant it was suicide to follow.

Thirty seconds passed before Natock found the creature. It was still alive, and paddling frantically towards an outcropping of rocks a few yards from the jagged cliff bottom. Natock took aim and began raining yellow plasma on the creature. He couldn't be sure at that distance, but he thought he hit the creature at least once before it managed to gain cover behind the stones. Natock watched and kept firing on the stones, hoping to flush it out into the open. 

He saw the creatures bulbous head bob up from behind the rocks three times as the waves lifted it and threw it against the rocks, but several minutes went by without Natock seeing the creature. He fired along the outline of the stones hoping to provoke the creature into revealing itself somehow, but it never did. He concluded that he fatally shot the creature and it sank below the waves, or it had time to catch its breath and swim under water to another spot. Natock scanned the area on both sides of the rocks. He went left, and then right. 

He saw a large wave drop the creatures on a wide flat rock at the base of the cliff. Natock took aim and fired. He wasn't sure if there was a range to the creatures glare, but he wasn't going to take any chances or give it time to recover. The Jaffa was amazed at how quickly the creature still moved despite everything it endured to that point. It dodged the yellow plasma blasts and scurried along the rocks out of view. 

Natock knew he lost it, but he fired several times along the edge of the cliff where the creature disappeared. He wanted to ensure that it wouldn't try to double back that way. It would, at least have to find another way back up the cliff. He scowled and lowered his rifle. Natock spared no more time watching, and turned to jog back to his teammates. 

Despite the density of the jungle growth, and the fact that he'd ran for almost three miles before the creature tumbled off a cliff, Natock was able to find his way back effortlessly. The world he lived on as a boy was similar to this one, and he'd been running through the wilderness for as long as he could walk. The skills his father taught him and his brothers had saved Natock's life on several occasions, and raised him quickly through the ranks of Jaffa. 

"Is he himself again?" Natock asked as he approached Ford.

"He's stunned, but still alive," Ford explained. Kneeling beside Colt's unconscious body. They subdued him by zip tying his hands behind his back. Ford held Colts rifle in his hand and had Colt's Zat gun stuffed in his drop bag. "Did you put it down?" 

"The creature eluded me," Natock answered.

"How did you lose it?" Washington demanded. 

"It dove from a five hundred foot cliff into an unexplored ocean below," 

"You didn't go after it?" Washington asked, playfully. 

"Obviously not," Natock growled. "Where is Madison?"

"Madison, come in," Ford said tapping his ear piece. "Madison, respond!"

Ford tried for a few more seconds.

"Natock did you see any others?"

"I saw only the one creature," 

"Washington stay with Colt," Ford said. He waived Natock across the clearing to search for Madison while he took the other side. They searched for fifteen minutes and then returned to Washington and Colt. "Anything?"

"I didn't find Madison, but I found his vest," Natock said holding up a black vest that was sliced in half up the back. He looked down at the vest and rubbed his fingers on the slice. Natock looked up, and showed them to Ford. His fingers were covered in blood. 

"Shit!" Ford growled. 

"The creature I chased could not have returned ahead of me and captured Madison."

Washington took the vest from Natock and examined it. "It was slit up the back. Looks like whatever took it off him cut Madison up pretty bad in the process."

Natock examined the cuts on the vest. "The creature I chased had no weapon, and these cuts are too clean for a claw."

"There's another creature," Ford said. "Madison's wounded and the sun's going down, if we don't find him soon we'll have to wait out the night."

"Do we know how long that is on this world?" Washington asked. 

"Similar to Alpha base," Natock said. 

"We're not sitting on our asses for ten hours while Madison is wounded. Find him," Ford snapped. Natock instantly turned and bounded off into the jungle again in search of Madison. Ford glanced at Washington and gave him a quick nod before he turned and jogged away. Washington stayed with Colt, who was beginning to stir. 

Ford and Natock searched for two hours before the sun dropped below the horizon and the jungle became dark. When it was finally too dark they returned to where Washington and Colt were sitting. Washington looked at Ford, but all he did was shake his head slowly with a dark scowl. Ford dropped down beside Colt, grinding his teeth in frustration. 

"Can we?" Colt asked Ford as he turned his back and held out his wrists towards Ford. Without a word Ford drew his knife and sliced the zip ties off Colts wrists. "Thanks. What happened?"

"The creature you spotted in the brush, it took over your body. You'd don't remember?" Ford asked. 

Colt thought for a second, and it rushed back into his head. "Ah!" He grabbed his head with his hands as he sat up.

"You alright?" Ford asked.

"Yeah, just thinking about it...it's like broken glass in my brain."

"You good to keep going?" 

"I'm fine," Colt said shaking his head. "Is that thing still alive?"

"It is," Natock said. "I am sorry." 

"Don't be, but next time, don't look that thing in the eyes. I think that's how it takes you."

"Telepathic control based on line of sight limitations," Natock said. 

"We'll be over due in half an hour and Alpha will dial the gate looking for us. We stay here for the night, and start looking again at first light," Ford snapped. 

The half hour passed in silence as they waited, listening to the sounds of the jungle. Three moons crested the horizon to the south. Colt looked at them in fascination as he wondered how big they were, and how far from the planet each one was. The closest one seemed to be just larger than the moon on Earth. The next moon was a little further but much smaller. It was difficult to speculate on the third moon because it seemed very far. Each of them was a slightly different shade of pale bluish green. Finally the silence was broken by the distant sound of the gate opening followed by Ford's radio crackling. 

The Hunter squatted on a thick branch in his blind as he pulled the body of the first intruder he captured up with a thin metal line. A flash of light in the jungle two miles to his left caught his attention. The Hunter knew the gate had just opened. He finished lifting the body and tossed it over the branch and then he flipped open the panel on his left gauntlet. He tapped the keys and a window appeared on the left side of his visor. He started scanning radio frequencies, until he found an active one. 

The Hunter didn't speak the language of the intruders, but it was one of the many in the data bank in his gauntlet. He activated the translation function and listened as he went back to the task of skinning his first kill. 

"Sergeant Ford, this is Alpha Base, do you read?"

"Alpha Base this is Ford, I have a team member missing, and presumed wounded."

"Do you require back up?"

"Negative. We encountered an unknown hostile alien species. It took telepathic control of one of my team members before we drove it off, but we were unable to capture it. Until I know how many there are, and exactly what they can do I don't want to risk any more teams," Ford answered.

"Understood. We'll dial back again in six hours."

"Ford out." Ford said tapping his ear piece.

The Hunter was halfway through skinning the intruder when the radio signal ended and the light in the jungle went out. The intruders knew the Hunter was there, but they didn't know who he was, or what to look for. The Hunter still had his advantage in the hunt.

While SG Ten waited out the night Colt examined the vest. He put the sliced up back pieces together, and he noticed something. A five inch wide section was missing from the center of the vest. 

"This wasn't made by one blade," Colt whispered to Ford as the jungle began to brighten. "There were two blades, they cut into the vest at the same time, mounted on the same hilt. If I had to guess I would say they cut up both sides of the spine, from the bottom to the top."

"We'll find him, we'll get him back home," Ford whispered back. "Alright, it's bright enough. Let's move." 

They searched for more than an hour before Natock spotted the droplets of blood on a large stone between two thick three trunks. He stopped and slowly back up three steps before looking directly above, into the tree canopy. It only took a second for him to spot the body. Natock looked back down at the ground and sighed before he pointed upward to the body. Everyone looked where he pointed. A collective look of disgust spread from one man to the next. 

"Can you get up there and cut him down?" Ford asked Natock. 

"Maybe, but it will take time."

"Damn it," Ford growled as he lifted his rifle and took aim on the line holding the headless, skinless corpse upside down in the tree. He fired one plasma blast and severed the line. The body dropped through the lower canopy and then into the bush a few yards ahead. 

They made their way to the body and examined it. Natock glanced up into the trees around them. He pointed out the uniform Madison had worn the day before. It was cut off and discarded in the lower canopy.

Something caught Colt's eye. He looked down at the ground and crouched to pick something up. He held blood stained dog tags in his right hand, the morning sunlight reflected on the metal. His left hand went over his mouth as he took a deep breath. "Shit." He mumbled to himself. The last hope he had that there was someone else with an identical uniform was gone.

Ford felt sick shooting Madison's body down, but when he turned it over on its stomach he realized it didn't matter what he did. 

"You were right," Ford said, squatting beside Madison's body. Whatever attacked Madison cut him open along both sides of his spine and removed it with his head. What remained of the body was skinned and then left to hang. Ford took off his hat and rubbed his left hand over his dirty sweat stained face and shaved head. He stood up, took two steps away, and stopped. Another teammate. Another man, under his command.

"I don't think it was the creature I chased," Natock said. "It was strong, but it didn't have the claws of a climbing creature."

"This is a weaved wire line," Colt pointed out as he took the line off Madison's ankles. "That thing we saw was nude. I doubt it was carrying line to tie anyone up."

"No," Ford agreed. "There's another threat here. Something we haven't seen yet."

Ford turned around and walked back to Madison's body. "Help me get him up."

"I can carry him," Natock offered. 

Ford ignored him and lifted Madison's body up and over his shoulder. "Let's get back to the gate."

They hiked on in silence for three miles until they were almost within sight of the gate. Natock spotted the alien that he chased before, standing at the DHD. He signaled Ford. Silently, Ford slipped Madison's body to the ground. Ford signaled them to spread out and take firing positions. Ford watched as the creature kept trying to dial out. It dialed address after address, but the gate wouldn't engage. Ford realized that either the creature was dialing bad addresses or the gate wasn't working.

"Let's introduce ourselves," Ford whispered to Natock as he lifted his rifle and took aim on the alien. He hit it directly between the shoulder blades with one plasma blast. It fell forward onto the DHD and then to the ground. It screeched in pain, and began crawling away. The creature quickly pushed itself to its feet and tried to jog away.

As it screeched Colts knees buckled. He fell to the ground screaming and clutching his head. Natock was determined to keep the creature from escaping a second time. He fired another blast and struck the creature just below it's right knee, severing it's leg. It screeched even louder. 

Colt flailed as he screamed. He could hear the creature screaming in his head, and it felt like his brain was being ground up in broken glass. It became unbearably painful, Colt curled up into a fetal ball, and screamed. 

The screams of his intended prey brought the Hunters' attention to the ground behind him. He turned around in his blind to watch his prey interact with the intruders. The intruder with the abdominal parasite chased his prey and fired on it. Striking it just below its right knee and separating the rest of its leg. His prey collapsed, and screeched even louder. 

The Hunter tilted his head as the screaming became intense enough to hurt even his ears. Then he tapped the keys on his left gauntlet and a window appeared on the left side of his visor displaying the frequency in which the creature was screaming. He adjusted his mask to negate it.

The intruder that disabled his prey closed in quickly and fired another energy weapon on it. This time the prey fell still. The Hunter assumed it was a weapon designed to stun instead of kill. The hunter keyed the gauntlet computer on his left forearm. His visor zoomed in on the Zat gun and a small window opened on the left side of his visor, displaying a diagram of the Zat gun between two columns of scrolling text in the language of the species that was cataloged using it. They called themselves Goa'uld.

The Hunter looked from the Zat gun to the rifle another intruder carried, pointing at the disabled prey. His visor singled out part of the weapon under the main weapon. Another window opened up on the right side of his visor and compared the highlighted portion of the intruders weapon and to another weapon from the Goa'uld species. It was a long staff weapon with the same quad muzzle design. There were two more columns of Goa'uld scrolling beside the staff weapon. 

Washington was right behind Natock. He quickly slipped zip ties over the creatures muscular wrists. Even after a shot from a Zat gun the creature was still conscious. The shot only left it sluggish. Washington had it by the wrist with his knee in the creatures back but it still managed to kick itself over in one quick, violent motion, and bite Washington on his left thigh. 

The Hunter watched from his perch thirty meters up in the tree canopy as his prey bit into one of the intruders. He tapped the keys on his left gauntlet computer with the fingernail on his index finger. His visor zoomed in on the bite wound. He switched spectrums. The intruder's leg became translucent. His blood glowed in a faint red, and the venom from his prey glowed in a faint bluish green. He watched as the intruders heart quickly circulated the venom through his body. 

The Hunter speculated that given the size and metabolism of the intruder that the venom would take hold in a matter of minutes. The effects of the venom would become painful within hours, and death would follow in a day, maybe two. 

Washington screamed and tore himself away from the creature just as a yellow plasma blast struck it in the side of the head. Hot fragments of bone and flesh sprayed over the jungle floor beside the creatures head, but it still wasn't dead. It writhed slowly trying to crawl into the jungle. Ford walked over and fired his .45 into the creatures head six more times before it finally fell still. Colt stopped screaming, but he was still curled up in a ball where he fell, groaning. 

"Ah!" Washington snapped. "Damn thing bit me."

"You ok?" Ford asked him. 

"Yeah, I think so. He took a chunk out of me though," Washington said standing up. He reached behind his back and yanked the medical pouch velcroed to his vest off. He opened it and started bandaging himself. Ford went back to check on Colt. 

Colt stopped screaming, but he was close to hyperventilating in between groans. Ford rolled Colt onto his back and checked him for any injuries. There was physically nothing wrong with him, and with the creature dead Colt's pain was quickly subsiding. Ford hoped that with the link severed, Colt would be ok. 

A moment later Washington and Natock came back to check on Colt. It took Colt a few more minutes to catch his breath and sit back up. "That thing got into my head. Maybe when I looked in its eyes, maybe some other way, but it was in my head."

"Did it communicate with you?" Natock asked.

"No, but it was scared, really scared, but not of us," Colt said, looking up at Ford.

"Are there any more?" Ford asked Colt. "Do you have any idea?"

"I think it was alone," Colt said, as he pushed himself up to his feet. 

"Stay here, catch your breath," Ford told Colt as he walked over to the DHD. He knelt down beside it and yanked the cover panel off the base. Ford dropped his head and sighed. He stood up and threw the cover panel at the DHD. 

"What's the problem?" Natock asked.

"Control crystal's gone," Ford snapped. 

"How did you know?"

"When it was dialing the gate," Ford said, pointing at the dead creature. "It knew how to use the gate, but it couldn't get a lock."

"We're stuck here," Washington groaned.


End file.
